Waterboarding: Is it like Swimming or a type of Torture

by OldSailor on December 14, 2007

ADVERTISEMENTS

Now most of the news channels are talking about Waterboarding. BBC News reports on December 11, about “the latest revelations about CIA interrogations have put the advocates of coercive techniques onto the defensive.” The argument over such methods, especially “water-boarding”, has raged since 9/11 as the Bush administration has fought to preserve what it regards as an effective way of getting information from al-Qaeda suspects. The debate has been heightened by an ABC News interview with ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou, who said he took part in interrogating al-Qaeda prisoner Abu Zubaydah. He acknowledged that water-boarding, used in that case, does amount to torture. But, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) in an interview to PBS’s Newshour says it is like swimming, freestyle, backstroke.